Patent application DE 199 12 480 A1, which belongs to the applicant, describes an automatic transmission for motor vehicles including three single-carrier planetary gear sets, three brakes, and two clutches for shifting between six forward gears and one reverse gear, and an input shaft and an output shaft. The input shaft is directly connected to the sun gear of the second planetary gear set, and is connectable to the sun gear of the first planetary gear set via the first clutch and to the carrier of the first planetary gear set via the second clutch. The sun gear of the first planetary gear set is connectable to the housing via the first brake, the carrier of the first planetary gear set is connectable to the housing via the second brake, and the sun gear of the third planetary gear set is connectable to the housing via the third brake. The carrier of the first planetary gear set is connected to the ring gear of the second planetary gear set. The carrier of the second planetary gear set is connected to the ring gear of the third planetary gear set. The ring gear of the first planetary gear set is connected to the carrier of the third planetary gear set and to the output shaft. In addition, one-way clutches are usable at every point of the transmission, for example between a shaft and the housing.
Patent application DE 101 62 873 A1, which belongs to the applicant, shows a multi-stage transmission in planetary design in FIG. 3, the design of which is very similar to that of the above-described transmission. The direct connection between the input shaft and the sun gear of the second planetary gear set is replaced by a shiftable connection, in that an additional clutch is made available.